


Desert

by LadyoftheShield



Category: Redwall Series - Brian Jacques, Salamandastron - Fandom
Genre: Aftermath, Corpses, Gen, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 17:13:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6337906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyoftheShield/pseuds/LadyoftheShield
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loambudd after The Assassin pays his visit. Salamandastron spoilers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Desert

The snowdrop in her paw crumpled into pulp. Badger senses were never wrong, and the instincts clamoring in the cupboards of her mind insisted that something back home was. Loambudd did not stop to grab her fallen basket of snowdrops. Hiking up her skirts, she ran back, trodding the blossoms into the pure snow. The thick, flying snow whipped against her fur, but she pressed on, paying for every step with the deterioration of her senses. The cold numbed her skin and the howling wind stole her hearing.

She didn’t know when the elements decided she had paid enough, only that sometime during her run, sleet had given way to the bright winter sun. Stopping on the top of the hill, she bent over as the cold air burnt her lungs. Wisps of grey smoke rose from the chimney, even as they were snatched by the wind. Many, many pawprints marred the ashy snow. Though the windows still glowed with an inviting light, it spilled through a splintered door hanging on one hinge. The smell of burning oat scones and the cries of a badger babe filled the air.

Already knowing what she would find, Loambudd ran down and cast the door’s corpse aside. Bread lay trampled on the floor. Half-dried cordial from a smashed keg lay splashed across the floor, sticking to the bottom of her footpaws. His white fur stained with his parent’s blood, Urthwyte pressed against his mother. Ugly grief consumed her. For a moment, there was nothing but the black expanse of her emotion as Loambudd collapsed on herself.

Urthwyte’s cries for his mother’s touch brought her back to the present- refracted, but herself. And Loambudd pushed all emotion aside. The keening wind and the hungry babe (hers now) allowed no time for herself. Fearing the return of the Assassin, she searched the room for Urthstripe. All their hiding places were known to her, yet all were bereft of life. Urthstripe’s small pawprints led outside, but once they left the cottage, the pawprints of the Assassin’s Corpsemakers drowned out the steps of a lone babe. she scooped Urthwyte into her arms.

The last of Urth’s line vanished into the sleet.


End file.
